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March 23, 2005

Alaska's Blakely fix is now law

Earlier this month I reported here on the bill in Alaska designed to bring the state's sentencing system into compliance with Blakely. This article indicates that Alaska's Blakely fix became law on Tuesday.

I believe the new sentencing law in Alaska expands sentencing ranges, but also provides for jury consideration of certain sentencing-enhancing aggravators. Thus, it appears that Alaska has adopted, through legislation, a remedy for its sentencing system that involves a little bit of Booker-izing and a little bit of Blakely-izing.

UPDATE: Additional information about Alaska's Blakely fix can be found in this press release, which also has links to the complete bill text and this fact sheet on the legislation. The press release quotes one Alaska legislator as saying "The Blakely decision had the effect of throwing our entire criminal justice system into turmoil." And the fact sheet indicates that one aspect of the new legislation "[p]rovides a defendant the right to petition the Court of Appeals on grounds of excessiveness when a sentence is handed down within a range."

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Red-eyed with emotion, Joshua Wade sits by Jim McComas, one of his defense attorneys, after a jury cleared him of murder charges Wednesday. Wade was convicted of a felony charge of evidence tampering and could be freed soon. (Photo by Jim Lavrakas / Anchorage Daily News) I find out while watching the evening News last night on Channel 2, Anchorage, that my son Josh has been picked up once again for a parole violation. Will he ever learn? I am so sad and frustrated both with him and the the News! Him for being so stupid and you because he was acquitted of the charge of murder! Yet every time he gets in trouble, you continue to bring up the charges he was found "NOT GUILTY" of! How is he ever going to be able to assimilate back into life or find work, if this is continually revisited. I am so very tired of reliving this nightmare... So I wrote the following response to bothe the "Anchorage Daily News and KTUU Channel 2 News"; You need to realize that he has a faimily as well and this whole experience has been devastating to all of us too. There must be more important news to share with the public than my son and his problems while on parole. There are many others that have violations of their parole, lets just have a whole news program or an entire page of the newspaper devoted to each and everyone of them... PLEASE!